


Like Fireworks

by God217



Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Vlad feels like a plastic bag
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-06
Updated: 2020-07-06
Packaged: 2021-03-05 05:41:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,320
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25099336
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/God217/pseuds/God217
Summary: Amino Writing Week - Prompt: FireworksNever thought I'd write an angst fic inspired by a Katy Perry song, but here we are.He's been left to die, but he's not giving in that easily. Like a firework, he will rise up high and show the world his colors, and he will make them all remember him.But in the end, was all his hard work even worth it?
Comments: 2
Kudos: 12





	Like Fireworks

**Author's Note:**

> Trigger Warnings: Mentions of death/murder plans (nobody dies, it's just brought up), Vlad is being a depressed little shit in general.  
> This is written in darker form, but he does canonically want to kill Jack, so honestly I'm not even reaching here.
> 
> Chase Holfelder's minor key version of Firework actually works perfectly for this, it was the best inspiration I could've asked for, and I'm... not even sure how to feel about that? Please do check that song out if you haven't yet.
> 
> The first two parts of this fic were inspired by the song and planned. The last part just kind of happened. My hand slipped. I'm sorry. I did not plan for the last part.

Loud explosions filled the silence of the late evening. Bursts of color flickering along the white walls of the lonesome hospital room, short reminders of the light that was awaiting outside, so close, yet out of reach.

It was July already, it seemed. Time stood still, yet simultaneously passed at unfathomable speeds, while he could do nothing but lie there and watch it happen.

July again, and as always, he was alone.

Nobody ever thought to visit him, not even on the holidays. Apparently, he wasn't important enough.

Didn't matter enough to be visited.

Not enough to be remembered.

Did anyone even remember him? Or had they all but forgotten his very existence, locked away in a hospital, out of sight, out of mind?

Another flash of light lit up the walls, a spray of red and green against the blackness of the sky. Just the right angle for him to actually see, despite his single window being way too far away.

They'd abandoned him, then.

They'd deemed him not worth saving.

Somehow, the pain of being left hurt even more than the burning sensation of the toxic acne on his face. Not that that didn't hurt as well; he barely even remembered living without the constant feeling of it, his own little fireworks bursting beneath his skin every second of every day for the past years.

Would he just die here in this bed, forgotten and alone? Would he be buried somewhere, nobody to witness it, and nobody to visit his grave? Would his suffering then find an end, or only just begin?

He might as well already be dead. Who would even know? Would his friends notice if he passed away? Did it matter?

But slowly, as the last breaths of his life fled from him on that summer evening, he made a decision, fueled by sheer determination.

He was not going to die here.

There was no way he would let them win.

They had forgotten him?

_He would make them remember._

══════════

As the years passed by, he got better. Not just physically.

Physically first and foremost, of course. After years of fighting and various forms of expensive therapy, the acne finally disappeared. Several cosmetic surgeries later, his face looked flawless as ever.

Ready to be looked at again.

Ready to be seen.

There was no doubt his newfound ghost powers were an invaluable asset to him in his new life. Once he'd figured out how to use them, mastered all of the tricks, the rest was child's play.

It was still tedious work, admittedly. Endless conversations, meetings, haggles, it was anything but fun. But nothing like overshadowing a wealthy businessman to sign a nice check, or agree to a good deal. Tedious work, but it more than paid off.

Sure, he could go an easier route. Simply phase through bank vault walls and take whatever he wanted, but that would just be too simple, wouldn't it? He wasn't some nobody bank robber, he was Vlad Masters, and they would know his name and respect it.

He wasn't wanted as a friend, so he would be wanted as a celebrity, and never a foul player.

His friends wouldn't see him?

_The world would see him!_

Magazines, talk shows, they all came together to prove to him that he was finally worth something. People liked him. People cared.

He was famous and rich, with a handsome face and his own castle, everything money could buy.

That accident in the lab had turned out to be the gateway to a dream life. He'd made sure of it.

Despite the explosion, he'd still learned how to build a portal to the ghost zone, and with first hand proof that ghosts were definitely real, he rebuilt it, improved it, and got it to work.

And extended his reach to the other world as well.

══════════

Now here he is.

Vlad Masters, successful businessman, billionaire, nothing short of a celebrity.

Vlad Plasmius, powerful half-ghost, authority within the ghost zone. Even ghosts like money.

He is known.

Heard.

Seen.

Worthy.

If he were to die now, he would be remembered. He refused to die forgotten. And he was far from ready to die, either way.

Still, there are two things money can't buy. And they're the two things he longs for the most.

Okay, he could live without owning the Green Bay Packers. If he had to.

But even after over twenty years, a part of him is still waiting for Maddie to remember. To love him back, to be his, yes, but also... just to remember.

To explain why she abandoned him all those years ago.

Give him a reason, anything. Tell him why.

Why was he that worthless to her, and to Jack?

He wouldn't be angry at her. He just wants to know.

But even when they finally meet, when he invites her into his home, along with her idiot husband and the two children he can't bear to look at... she brushes him off.

When he pours his heart out to her, she leaves, preferring to sleep in a forest outside than be anywhere near him.

As many times as he tries, not only does it feel as if their friendship has never existed, but she treats him like she hates him. And Jack pretends nothing ever happened, doesn't even acknowledge everything he's put him through.

Not even an apology. Not even a hint of any guilt. That horrible day in the lab, it's nothing but a joke to him, something he tells his damned kids to make them laugh.

In the end, did all this even matter?

All of his hard work, years of pain, years of struggle. With everything money can buy, he's still alone.

He's just empty inside.

Why did he think Maddie would love him if he were successful? He'd been so sure, and yet.

Everybody knows of him, knows his name, but nobody cares for who he really is, do they?

He's respected.

Maybe he's feared.

But not loved.

He has never been loved.

So was it really worth it, then? He's done all this to show them he could, but they aren't even looking, all caught up in their own, happy little world, that doesn't involve him. Will never involve him.

He still remembers that night at the hospital, when he watched the fireworks through his little window, illuminating the sky. He still remembers how he felt. How he decided then and there that he too would rise, and would show the world his colors.

And he has. He's done all he planned to and more.

And it's brought him nothing.

Like a firework, he's shown his colors. And within a second, faded into nothing.

_Oh._

Maybe he's been going about this the wrong way all along.

He's tried way too hard. What a fool.

Oh, he'll make them look.

Make sure he'll prove his point, if it's the last thing he does.

They will not love him.

Daniel, Jasmine, Maddie... don't want him. Maddie will not love him.

He has to accept that.

He is simply not worth being loved. Why? Who knows. But he clearly is not.

So why should anyone else be?

As fireworks explode in the sky once more, he makes a decision, reminiscent of the one he made all of those years ago, when he'd been just as lonesome as he is now.

They left him to die, alone and forgotten.

But he survived.

He survived because he was told he couldn't.

And everyone who abandoned him, Jack, all the people that had a part in how his life turned out, especially Jack, now it's time for them to pay.

And once they're dead?

He'll make sure not to remember them.

They'll disappear like fireworks, leaving nothing but black sky and an empty shell.

See how they like it.

This time, he's holding the lighter.

So let them burn.


End file.
